CAPE TOWN INTERNATIONAL JAZZ FESTIVAL - 2006
FIRST ARTISTS ON THE BILL ANNOUNCED

The 7th annual Cape Town International Jazz Festival, which is now acknowledged as the biggest Jazz event on the African continent, will once again take place at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC) on Friday 31 March and Saturday 1 April 2006.

Festival director, Rashid Lombard, and his organisation team, espAfrika (Pty) Ltd, are more than confident that the 2006 staging of this popular festival, that has become affectionately known as 'Africa's Grandest Gathering', will be as successful as the previous festivals and will again feature a world-class line-up of jazz and jazz related artists.

This will be the third time that the Cape Town International Jazz Festival will be staged at its spacious and classy new home at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC). The 2006 festival will again feature a spectacular bill of 40 acts, split equally between the African and International contingents, performing in five different venues situated around the Convention Centre. There will also be the traditional free concert for the people of Cape Town prior to the festival on Thursday 30 March to be held on Greenmarket Square.

With almost four months to go till the eagerly anticipated weekend musical party in March, espAfrika have already announced the first list of artists who will be appearing at the 2006 Jazz Festival. Artists already confirmed include:

espAfrika will be releasing more names as they become available, but even at this early stage with artists of this calibre already confirmed it is looking like the line-up for the Cape Town International Jazz Festival 2006 will be as outstanding as in previous years.

Ticket prices remain the same as last year at R399 for a two-day pass and R260 for a one-day pass, excluding the 'Rosies' stage, where tickets will sell for R20.00 per performance. Computicket bookings will open at the end of December.

The demand from both South African and International jazz fans for tickets, trains, flights, accommodation, and travel packages for the sell-out festival has already begun. The organisers have been working with SAA to make a large variety of travel packages available. Details of these are available from SAA at +27 11 978 1144 or on their website www.flysaa.com